Hi David: thanks for reviewing the right way to say “Monsieur.” My French teacher has beaten that into our heads mercilessly.
I am so jealous of your having a 12-year-old son to tell you how to say things, and probably to teach you all your great knowledge of computers too. You mentioned a daughter in a phone call. How many French kids do you have? Are you a born, native French speaker? Your English accent is just a tad off, to my ears. Best, Jeanne Gail, Belfast, Maine

Hello Amanda,
Same here. I’ve been pronouncing it correctly (as it turns out) for years, but when it came time to do a lesson, I needed to ask my son for guidance. French words whose pronunciation differs from their spelling are very rare.
Regards,
David

Hi Jeanne,
2 kids, yes. As for my accent, I was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, but by Nebraskans. So I don’t have a true Lowcountry drawl; but I bet you can hear a bit of southern accent slip through from time to time?
Kind regards,
David

You are welcome, JB!
On the subject of looking into the pronunciation of words we already know, here is why I double-checked the pronunciation with my son: a couple of years ago, I found out that I had been pronouncing “enregistrer” incorrectly for 20 years. It was a big shock. I realized that I had learned that word BEFORE I learned the correct pronunciation rules.
Regards, David

Ugh, I’ve been saying that simple word wrong, all along! Thank you. But do you know why is it a soft ‘u’ in ‘monsieur, and yet, the same is not true for ‘bonjour’??? I don’t understand why that ‘mon’ sounds like ‘muh’. Is there anything about that that should make sense?

Hello,
You can think of monsieur as being an exception in that its pronunciation has little connection to its spelling. It is one of the only words I can think of whose pronunciation does not adhere to the rules.
Best regards,
David